Yuki Kawamura; The Bulls Summer League Sensation

Yuki Kawamura; The Bulls Summer League Sensation

All right, so we need to talk about Yuki Kawamura, the Bulls summer league sensation. Because throughout the entirety of Summer League, I’ve maintained that, yeah, while this kid is nice and insanely fun to watch, he’s never going to get an NBA contract. Like, we’ve seen this quite a bit in league history where a player stuns in summer league, and everyone’s wondering why no NBA team will sign this guy. And then after you see them get a 10-day contract at some point in their career, you’re reminded why summer league ball is nothing to the level of competition the actual NBA is, and why said player, simply put, is not cut out for this. But Yuki, there is something about this kid that is changing my mind that even for a small point guard where everyone on the court is towering over him that has somehow made me a believer, a believer to the point where I think it would behoove the Bulls to sign this kid to their final two-way contract and I’ll explain why in this video. So, what’s going on everyone? You’re listening to Bulls Central here. Hope you’re all doing well. Real quick, be sure to subscribe if you haven’t already to help the channel and that algorithm going even in the dead of the offseason. I would very much appreciate it. Now, my first introduction to Yuki Kamura was when uh I saw him play at the Olympics for the Japanese national team where he had that stellar performance against France and narrowly beat them sending it into overtime where Yuki led the way finishing with 29 points. But at that time, while I found it impressive, I didn’t really think much of the guy because I simply said, like a lot of people have said, he’s too small to really make an impact or compete at the highest level in the NBA. And when I saw the Bulls were having him play on their summer league roster, I thought, okay, it’ll be fun to see what this kid can do. while still remaining skeptical, of course. And with every passing game in summer league, I became more and more impressed, not only with his impeccable court vision, that high IQ, knowing how to generate offense and get the ball up ahead in transition, but to me, the biggest thing that stood out is his hustle. You guys know I love the players that give it their all when they’re on the court, the ones that are always going to be fighting for loose balls. And to me, what makes it even more impressive for a player like Yuki is he doesn’t let his size get in the way of still clawing after the ball. Countless times you saw him scrapping for 50/50 balls on offensive rebounds, forcing turnovers by playing in-your-face hard-nosed defense, diving out of bounds to keep the ball in play. That’s what sells me on a player. That’s what makes me want said player on my team. Now, if I’m being honest, or if we’re all being honest with ourselves, the Bulls likely aren’t going to be signing Yuki, not only to a full-time contract, given they don’t have any open roster spots after they eventually sign Josh Giddy, but they’re more than likely not even going to sign him to a two-way deal. I just don’t see this runoff as valuing a player like Yuki to reward him with a two-way contract. And just a week ago, I would have actually agreed with that sentiment. But after watching him close out summer league, especially in that final game against the Jazz, and the way he led that team to victory in that game, the way he impacted the court, made winning plays on both ends, in my view, it’s worth giving him a two-way deal. Like the way I look at it, two-way contracts in the NBA rarely turn into eventual NBA contributors. Yes, you’ve seen examples of this happening like Alex Caruso, Duncan Robinson, Austin Reeves even, I believe. But for the most part, two-way contracts remain just that. They mostly play in the G-League and eventually plays somewhere else overseas. And so, the way I look at it, what do you have to lose by signing Yuki to a two-way deal. At worst, he plays for your Windy City team, he doesn’t work out or isn’t good enough to compete at that level, and you wave him or you have him play out the season and sign some other player to a two-way deal next year. But if he does work out, if it does work out, if somehow he becomes the next Nate Robinson level player, yes, I know very different players in terms of skill set. Obviously, Robinson, while small was a high flyer and extremely athletic while Yuki is not, but because of his hustle, his IQ, his impeccable court vision, the fact that he’s only continued to get better and better with every passing year in his career. 24 years old, so still some upside, as well as he gets more and more acclimated to the NBA level basketball. There is a chance, a small chance, but a chance. This could be one of those rare success stories of a two-way player that has a successful career in the NBA. Again, I think it’s unlikely, always unlikely, when you have a player that’s 5’8 in the NBA, but it’s a lowrisk, highreward scenario if you’re the Bulls while they’re still trying to figure out what they’re trying to do, what their identity is. They’re not trying to compete for a championship. And if we’re being real, there wasn’t anyone else on the summer league roster, the Bulls summer league roster, where you would say, “Absolutely sign this guy over Yuki.” Yuki was playing on a two-way contract last season with the Grizzlies. He’s been playing professional basketball in Japan since he was 18 years old. He was the youngest player in that league’s history in Japan, the B- League, was the rookie of the year in the B- League, won MVP of that league in that same season along with league all first team. The dude can play. He plays well above his size, plays with a ton of confidence. Those are the type of players I want to see the Bulls take a chance on. And if it doesn’t work out, well, it’s not like he signed him to a 5year $90 million deal like he did with Patrick Williams. We’ll see if the Bulls eventually bring Yuki into the fold now that summer league has concluded. I would love to hear what you guys think, though. You let me know in the comments. As always, be sure to subscribe and I will see you in the next one.

Yuki Kawamura is LEGIT!

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